The Ranch of Rivershine Roadmap!

[cozybeegames]

This roadmap outlines what is already implemented in The Ranch of Rivershine along with future development plans! Of course, the features listed below could change depending on the player feedback I receive during Early Access. Please let me know which features you're most excited to see in the game and I'll focus on implementing these first!

Demo - January 2023

Please note that the demo is limited to the first in-game season (the spring season) and you won't be able to continue playing once the season ends. The save file for the demo will not be compatible with further game versions such as Early Access. I expect the demo to take about 3-5 hours to complete but it can be played for a bit longer until the end of the spring season, for about 10-15 hours total depending on your playstyle.

World Map
Move to Rivershine Ranch to raise your horses, meet your fellow villagers in Rivershine Town and explore the trails in Lupine Meadow!

Horse Caring
Care for your horses by feeding them hay, grains & treats! Keep them clean by brushing them and mucking their stall. Move your horses between the stable and pasture based on their needs. Collect equipment and change up your horse’s tack.

Horse Training
Ride your horse around the trails or in the riding arena to improve their skills. Maximise their potential and train your horses in multiple disciplines such as speed, endurance, flexibility & jump. Increase your horse’s trust in you and form a bond with them.

Riding Arenas
Build different obstacle courses in your riding arenas, both indoors and outdoors! Add cross country courses in Lupine Meadow to practice for competitions.

Cross Country Competitions
Participate in beginner and intermediate cross country competitions to win prizes and help Rivershine Town become famous again!

Auction House
Sell and buy horses at the auction house to grow your herd or make a bit of extra money!

Villager Shops
Purchase goods from the villager’s shops or sell extra items you’ve gathered. Unlock upgrades such as improving the auction house or building new obstacle courses.

Farming
Build crop fields to grow your own feed for your horses, and sell your additional harvest in town!

Early Access - Spring 2023

Horse Breeding
Pick a pair from your mares and stallions and breed your own foals! Raise them on your ranch to continue their lineage and further improve your horse’s skills.

Seasons & Weather
Experience Rivershine in all four seasons and different weathers such as rain, snow and fog!

New Trails
Explore two new trail rides, Pine Forest & Crystal Lake, which will both contain their own cross country courses and unique attractions.

New Villagers
Meet new villagers! The carpenter and the veterinarian are joining Rivershine.

Ranch Upgrades
Improve your ranch by upgrading different buildings such as the pasture, the arena and the stable to house more horses.

Full Release - 2024

These features will be released throughout the Early Access period, until all planned content has been added and the game is fully released! I plan on releasing a new content update on average every 2-3 months during Early Access.

New Trails
Explore two new trail rides, Mountain Hike & Azure Coast, which will both contain their own cross country courses and unique attractions.

New Villagers
Meet the tailor, the stylist and the saddler who will help you in Rivershine!

Wild Horses
Keep an eye out and catch wild horses on the trails to trade at the auction house or to add them to your herd! Find wild horses with unique coat colors and patterns.

Foal Training
Train your foals with unique activities so that they gain additional trust and skills before they reach adulthood!

Horse Personality
Pick your horse’s based on their personality traits, which will impact their training, health, behavior and reproduction. Pass on good personality traits to the foals you breed.

Horse Behavior
Continued improvement on the horse's behavior and intelligence. Get ready to react to your horse getting spooked or surprised by their environment!

Horse Illnesses
Ensure your horse’s good health with the help of the veterinarian and practice good horse care to avoid ailments!

Horse Hairstyles
Learn how to cut and style your horses’ hair from the stylist! Keep an eye on your horses as their hair will grow over time.

Horse Tack
Meet the saddler who crafts his equipment in town! Purchase more varied equipment for your horses from the saddlery.

Character Outfits
Meet the tailor who will sell you new outfits! Further personalize your character with these new looks.

Full Storyline
Complete Rivershine’s story as you explore all of the areas surrounding Rivershine Town!

[HorseMania14]

I love this game so much. Will there be a possibility to have more than 8 horses in the full version? Cause at the moment you can only have 8 horses. I can not wait .

[lunarwolf4]

Oprindeligt skrevet af HorseMania14:

I love this game so much. Will there be a possibility to have more than 8 horses in the full version? Cause at the moment you can only have 8 horses. I can not wait .

The max number of horses you can have as of now is 12, once you have fully upgraded the stable. Having more will be considered in the future, but as of now it's not a priority. :)

[Snom On A Bench]

Any plans for achievements ? :)

[Jinxette]

any chances of possibly making the genetics system a little more realistic?

[countrygal34]

need more colour variations not in the roan area and maybe to have mane and tale multi colour

[SunnyFox]

For those of you commenting here about suggestions and ideas, you guys should join the discord. A lot of the upcoming stuff is being discussed there. New tack, Vet, Tailor, Stylist, 2 new zones, flex training, rabicano horses, gray horses, foal training, horse personalities, and a ton more!!! Please check it out!

https://discord.gg/WcaptPQHGZ

[rheasaurus]

Will there be controller support?

[Shanzilla]

Will there be achievements at some point? I've been enjoying reading all the updates and stuff being added, but achievements haven't been addressed (from what I've seen), so just curious.

[Silver]

This is a game I have recently began looking at more; it seems to be coming along nicely!
I've been digging up some answers to various questions I've had and learning more about it's features. I'm being so nosy as I am strongly considering this game and thus am also donating my 2 cents worth....

Some suggestions:
-Make the jumps more visible: consider adding red and white flags like on a real life course, some are very hard to see in a field, forest or the water
- Increase stable space beyond 12 or allow for overflow beyond the retirement paddock. This will help those of us that really want to breed coats, stats and skills/ traits (I am imaging my perfect trail and competition horses already!!)
-Consider allowing the player to take more than one wild horse home at a time, Perhaps we would need to buy a stock trailer or need to collect all horses before midnight in game from the pen
- I've heard many speak of the steep cost of things in game and the grind to get there. If this is not limited to a brief rough patch starting out look at the economy: this is a concern as if we are low on funds with no way to make enough we might end up with a sick horse and a very sorry situation when illness is introduced
-Please make it so we can interact from horseback! Talking/travel stones/competition boards at min.... would also appreciate being able to collect from horse back (tis possible! I've been berry picking from my horses back)
-being in the paddock should not decrease potential

Other thoughts/ Questions
- some people seem to feel the barn is encouraged and to a degree I suppose it is. Most people I know that show tend to keep the horse in a stall. So fair I guess. However we do know that horses need their time in the paddock and being social as well. When you implement illness will this negatively impact the horses in the paddock? (I hope not!) Will we need winter blankets?
- What is the full story of Rivershine? Is there a mystery to unravel? Is it simply bringing back the prestige? Why are we the champion to be?
-Why only one breeding pen? Perhaps that could be reworked a little, also will the paddocks always be co-ed? Or will they be separated out Mares and Stallions?
-When you have completed all you set out to do, is there the possibility of adding to this game? So may horse enthusiasts would love an expansion later.... more disciplines ect

Praises:
-SINGLE PLAYER!! I love this. A game I could play peacefully on my own offline even if the internet died. Thank you
-Seems focused on the horse and cross country, plus my starter horse is *viable the whole game* if I invest in him/her ^^. Again thank you. While I would absolutely be a glutton for more horse sports if you had to go with one cross country is a fave to play in a game for me personally. I appreciate that it is you and the horse with out a bunch of romance fluff that I generally just find irritating
-You seem to have managed to set realistic goals and stay on track, from what I know this is know easy feat. Congrats

Anything more will be after some time in game I suppose

I most likely will get the game soon though it may be a wile for me to settle on my first horse as I will likely have that one to the bitter end :P

[Picksey]

i absolutely adore this game, as evidenced by the many many hours i've put into it already. it's really satisfying to train up horses, and it's fun to breed nice colors into the line to create a beautiful horse with great stats. i'd love to see different types of competitions, like show jumping, barrel racing, and dressage in the future, maybe as a DLC if it would delay the full release too much. i'm also wondering if the full game release is still scheduled for 2024, or if it's being pushed to 2025? it looks like there's still some things on the roadmap that haven't been added yet.

[Paarthurnaxx]

Apologies if this has already been asked but is there a plan to add more horse care such as hoof cleaning & bathing?

[ishiken1842]

It may be difficult given the scale of development, but I would definitely like to purchase it if it is available in Japanese.
In Japan, a race horse training game called "Winning Post" is popular, and there are many people who like the training game genre in general, so I think there is a certain demand for it. The character graphics are also pop and cute, so I think this will also be easy for Japanese people to accept.

[Silver]

OK so after several hours in game here are some notes to be considered/ feed back :

Likes
The overall look of the game and ability to customise my game speed - I love going for a long country side ride - honestly could go for longer still sometimes!

The ability to start training the foals and to do focused training - esp if wanting to focus on a certain skill eg jump or flexibility. It's also good to have a reason to build the arenas for skills in the different zones and on the ranch

The trust/ tameness system is right up my ally I like having this and have not played a game other than Horsez2 and RDR2 that incorporate this

I can feel the difference in my starter horse as I've put all bonuses into her until recently as she is maxed in 2 stats now - Thank you for making it so our first horse can stay for the end game!

The chores don't eat into my training time too much - better system than some other games as well - only so may times the same hoof picking mini game can be interesting. I also do not struggle to get the horse clean with the brush - some games have a spot that is hard to get with the hit box system - not an issue here. I can also choose a bedding that does not need to be replaced in full everyday....

The courses can provide a good challenge - of course I've not done any advanced courses yet but I do like challenge of learning the course and the courses visually look great plus the music that goes along with them is full of energy and fun

I like the themes that you have picked for each zone - the musical scores really work to bring the game to life and give an idea of what is going on or an identity to an area.

Bugs/ Points to refine

-horses may be assigned to the pasture without you ever doing so when you bring a horse in from outside. Repeatable but not 100% I was able to fix it by using the send all to stable option on the barn board. (one instance of this after sleeping and starting a new day even with all horses brought in for the night - I did breed a pair the prior day and these were the 2 that started the above loop)

-Controls can be unresponsive at times : typically when jumping on a bridge esp if the jump is nearer a incline/ decline. Also at times it feels like the system half way goes between the 2 camera modes without hitting L Alt. No trigger I can find and it seems to auto correct quickly. Does not persist more than a 10-15 sec and generally less than 5 sec when on the flat

-the horses can "auto pilot" in a turn when jumping or entering the barn this does not happen at walk and is rare at the trot. Usually happens if I canter in. Initially I was blaming me and I'm sure some of it it however with my hand off the mouse (in my set up this controls the camera) and off the WASD keys I still can occasionally get this glitch where the horse makes a sharp turn to either direction. With the jumps it is not predictable - seems random

-Sometimes I get double my foragables with either a horse with harvester (4 instead of 2) or without the harvester perk (2 instead of 1) Super nice ^^ but I do think unintended.... I'm not sure why. I can pick up several items and spontaneously get a bonus or it might be the first one I grab. It could be after a race or before, it could be after the auction or before, I could have travelled in and out of an area or not.

-Economy still seems a bit off balance given the costs early game and what you can earn through races. Perhaps increase earnings from races or consider decreasing some of the early to mid game items a bit more

-Not sue what the spawn rate is for pears pumpkins and watermelons but they seem to be quite sparse - increasing seed drops and /or the amount you can find would be a possible consideration.

-Potential, there are times it seems I loose potential and don't gain a skill point. Is it 1:1 or not? If it is meant to be 1:1 there seem to be a few points the game looses track of a partial point usage and I don't fully transfer all potential into skill

I'm part way through Summer year 1 currently Slowest time setting for in game speed

[protanyakateyo]

I really enjoying the game but i have an issue with the competitions and getting lost, especially on the first go. The directional arrow should be a little more obvious and its hard to see when its pointing directly forward vs behind you during a quick turn.

Also i had a previous riding game do a whole jump by jump drone type overhead shot of the route as a preview just before starting the route. instead of the kind of summary shots we get which aren't as helpful. So i wish the preview of the competition routes were of the whole thing start to finish. (im referencing the game equestriad 2001 that did something similar. it was really helpful when doing a new course, but easily skipped with a click if you are repeating one).

Just a little tired of getting lost on some of the more intricate routes in the game. I enjoy the difficulty but i wish it was better idicated on either the arrow or on a full preview shot beforehand

[noonespecia10121]

I would like to see the horses rolling around in the pasture and moving around more in their stalls, and possibly laying down after a certain time at night and early morning. More personality traits, including "buddying up" with other horses and having certain horses they prefer to be stalled next to and stick with in the pasture. Behavior problems should also be a thing in wild, auctioned and young horses and the more you work with them the more they improve, such as "crib-biting," rearing, biting, mounting issues, take off issues, stall pacing etc. Not every horse but horses at random could have one unique issue to work on.